Cultural Landmarks, Film Noir, Mono Moods And More – The Weekly Community Roundup

Welcome to our weekly community wrap-up.  It's been another amazing week on the Light Stalking forums with great photography by the community and the discussions in the forums have been engaging and very inspiring in the recent weeks. We've had more members joining the community the last few weeks, making the forum experience even more exciting.

The weekend photography challenge from last week was “Cultural Landmarks” and members came up with their creative interpretation of the theme by capturing very interesting shots – some of them are shared below.

This week, we have a new challenge that has some very beautiful submissions already. Join the challenge here – Threads of Tradition

Here are some “Cultural Landmarks” photographs from the past week's challenge that we thought were great and should be included here:

In my opinion, Monument Valley is a cultural landmark that has far more significance than anything man-made – Copyright Stefanie Markham
Ancient Petroglyphs – Copyright Michael
Copyright Anthony Kovacs
Sphinx Like Rock Formations Watch Over the Coal Mining Ghost Town of Gebo – Copyright Robert Apple
The Colosseum in Rome – Copyright Stefanie Markham

Here are photos shared by members in other forums like General Photo Chit Chat, Landscape Photography, Macro Photography, Astrophotography, etc.

Copyright Patrick
Copyright Steve
Copyright Steve

Interesting Threads in the Forums:

Our members have started some very interesting threads so you can follow and get inspired and some where you can also post your own photos. These are great ways to learn more in terms of photography and the natural world we live in.

  • Moments Through a Dirty Windshield – Started by Retired Grunt, who will be posting photos from the project weekly. These are moments of life that he captures while he drives although some are taken while parked.
Yeah, the weather does not stop the Army. Some photos from about 10 years ago while driving on post, headed to where I worked – Copyright Retired Grunt
While in the downtown of where I live – Copyright Retired Grunt
Copyright Retired Grunt
  • Mono mood – A series of interesting photos in monochrome by Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Robert Apple
Copyright Robert Apple
  • The Family of Asteraceae – Robert has started this very interesting thread where you can find asters where you live, take photos of them and post them with information on where you found it and the name, or you can just post the information on what you can discover and if possible, other members can help with the name or other details.
  • Rob’s Daily Shot – Rob is going to post a shot daily in this thread and keep it going as long as he feels like it. He believes it could be a way to improve, share, get opinions and mainly just to have a bit of fun.
Copyright Rob Wood
  • Steve’s Start and Finish – Steve will be posting both the image’s starting point and its most recent finish and if possible may share some other notes about the potential he saw when he decided to frame and focus.
  • Patrick – Daily Observations – Patrick will try his best to update this thread Daily with some frames , whatever catches his eye.
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick

Interesting Topics And Discussions:

  • Storage and Organization – a discussion on storage and organisation of digital images, started by Stefanie Markham.
  • Gone Bananas – a discussion on Nano Banana Pro, started by Rob Eyers
  • Insufferable Bores – Check out this thread started by Rob about pseudo-intellectual gatekeepers in photography.
  • This is Disruption – Patrick shared this interesting podcast – worth a listen and follow if you like podcast or anything creative
  • A Win Against AI – Check out the news! Also some interesting discussions happening in this thread!
  • How long have you been Practicing – Patrick started this discussion and is just curious in a general way how long the members have been doing photography.
  • I have been in photography for… – Rob started this discussion – Have you guys ever noticed that somebody who leads with how long they have been doing Photography is usually about to say something to offend somebody else?
  • How do you improve? – Rob started a very interesting discussion on how photographers may fall into a few different groups. Join it here.

If you are someone who captures images with your smartphone, we have a Mobile Photography Challenge where you can post your mobile photos and also check out the works by other photographers. The images must be captured and edited on a smartphone. Join to submit the photos over here.

Copyright Patrick
Copyright Patrick

There are also some members' picks that are featured. These can be chosen by any of the members and are put in a whole new thread of their own and called out as being a great addition and shot for the forums. Check out those stunning captures here.

Patrick started a thread late last year – “Community Inspired Photo Story Challenge” – capture a story in 3 to 6 photos that hold personal significance and post them with a brief description. While that thread was started to be completed within a week, it has been open with ongoing submissions for the past year and is still open where members can post their stories.

This morning as I drove the downtown area, I saw that the tugboat crew was getting ready to head back home to Messena. So I stopped and got some shots of them readying the equipment and then headed out back to home.
Left behind each year are the buoys they pull out of the St. Lawrence River once the shipping lane is closed for the remainder of the winter. Even the river freezes over come January through March, when they will run ice breakers from Lake Ontario, all the way to the Atlantic ocean.

Copyright Retired Grunt
Copyright Retired Grunt
Copyright Retired Grunt

Here are some throwdowns to follow and post your own photos, or you can start your own throwdown too.

  • Trees That Go Bump In The Night – Not Your Normal tree photos – started by Robert Apple
  • Negative Space Photos – Started by Retired Grunt – Negative Space is basically your subject surrounded by nothing but a single color or texture. All sky, all water, all sand, can be utilized strongly. The intent is to isolate the subject and keep the viewers focus on the subject.
Copyright Frogdaily
Copyright Tersha
Copyright Frogdaily
Copyright Tersha
Copyright Retired Grunt
  • Creative Aperture Throwdown – Robert has started this interesting throwdown aimed at capturing the lights creatively this holiday season. Robert says, “With all the lights this time of year, it is the perfect season for this and you can do it with any lens.”
The Entrance in Angels – Copyright Robert Apple
Tilt Shift Pumpkin – Copyright Robert Apple
  • Photographing Natures Textures – Started by Robert Apple – Pano, Macro, or anything in between. Only Rule, Nothing Man-Made, natures effect on man made objects is OK.
Copyright Tersha
  • Toy photography Throwdown – A throwdown that Patrick has started, where you can submit your toy photography if you are someone interested in that genre.
  • Medical Throwdown – Started by Patrick – to post photos of medical products , jars , bottles , equipment,  packaging , anything you like with any device you want. Everyone needs to give their photo a caption for some context – only 1 rule – Nothing inappropriate please.
  • Breaking the rule of thirds – Rob Wood has started this throwdown and he doesn't care how you do it, just do it!
  • 2025 Reflections Throwdown – Started by Patrick, in this throwdown, use a unique way to capture your own reflection, whether abstract or otherwise. There are many beautiful images to go through for some inspiration. Patrick himself has been doing one a week and it is amazing to see how reflections can be interpreted creatively, especially self-reflections.
Copyright Patrick
  • Your Pets – Share photos of your pets here.
Copyright Robert Apple
Copyright Robert Apple
Copyright Patrick
  • Rob started a throwdown – “Abstract Flowers” – a very interesting one and it has some very creative and absolutely stunning shots already. You can participate here.

And, there are images posted in the Shark Tank forum where members request for constructive criticism/feedback on their photos.

If you'd like to join in with our members, feel free to join us on the forums.  We'd love to see you there, and we are a friendly bunch.

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About Author

Dahlia is a stock photographer and full time educator at Light Stalking. You can find her on Gurushots and see some of her more popular articles at The American Society of Media Photographers. Get to know her better here.

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